MyTake

Background of one of my forthcoming chapters... On #happiness , #income & #HumanWellBeing .... === Last 2 decades have produced voluminous literature on happiness, well-being, and quality-of-life. Objectively the world has become a better place to live; science has solved many problems and has made life comfortable and easy; economically last century has witnessed tremendous growth; per capita income grew by around 6 times whereas population grew by around 4.6 times; and the world GDP has grown by more than thirty times. Amid all these visible indicators the problems of depression, stress, health hazards, family disputes, work-life conflict, discrimination, crime, emotional imbalances, social alienation, climate change, etc. are hindering human progress. The inequalities are on the rise and aspiration levels for material well-being are high. This in result is affecting happiness and peace of individuals. The puzzle of income and happiness has been in the domain of research for...

Outline The other day we were discussing the issue of development among colleagues and few mentioned that India has really developed in last 60 years.  Out of my inquisitiveness I asked how do they defend this view, their indicators were like, use of mobile, availability of ice-cream, motorcycles, cars and such other products.  I put a simple question before them, before 30 years what was the state of education and health in the villages and what it is today.   To my surprise I could not get the view of any of them on this.  Certainly there is huge wealth creation which has happened in all these years, more in the real monetary terms.  The availability of all branded products and services across different industries, proliferation of multi-national corporations, increase in the number of cars, television, mobiles, and such other products might surely reflect positive side of an economy like that of India, might surely boast of higher GDP...